Fixing the Past
by shel-belle
Summary: Zhalia Moon. Friend. Lover. Sister. Mother. She has come to accept all these titles willingly. Friend to Lok Lambert and Sophie Casterwill - not Dante. Lover to Dante Vale. Sister to Kira Moon. Mother to her unnamed child - not an 'it', a 'him'. Daughter of no one. Adopted daughter of Klaus. Daughter of no one. DxZ LxS
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Huntik: Secrets & Seekers. **

(ages: Dante-25; Zhalia-21; Sophie and Lok-16)

* * *

LOCATION: VENICE, ITALY: CASTERWILL MANSION

"Lok." Sophie impatiently shook her friend's shoulder. "Lok, wake up."

"Hmm...?" The blond boy yawned, his face still implanted among a mass of textbooks and paper. "Soph, did you say something?" He burrowed his head deeper into his homework and stayed there for a few seconds before bolting upright. "Sophie!"

She laughed and placed her hands on his shoulders. "No mission. Relax. I'm just bored." Her finger tapped his nose gently. "You've been sleeping for almost an hour now, you know."

Lok glared at her with no real anger. "Go bother Dante. Or Zhalia. Cherit, even."

"I can't. She's off on 'personal business' again," Sophie said, finger-quoting. "And who knows where Dante is. LeBlanche and Santiago say I should do some more studying but I've been reading and reading and it's _summer_! Not that we'd be in school otherwise, but still."

As prodigy Seekers and part of Dante's famous team, Lok and Sophie's education was put on hold, even though they were just sixteen. Officially, they were being home-schooled by Dante and Zhalia (who was just five years older than them, for goodness' sake) with LeBlanche and Santiago occasionally helping. Obviously, Lok preferred it this way and Sophie was always an independent learner, being much farther ahead than her peers, so it didn't affect her much either.

"What about _me_?" Lok looked offended. "I've been studying since morning. And that's just today!"

"That and sleeping," Sophie said, smiling. "If you hadn't put all of your studies to the last minute, this wouldn't have happened. Your mother was being generous letting you make it up."

Lok winced. "You say that like you mean it."

"You don't? Lok!" Sophie's hands flew to her hips and she took in a deep breath.

"I know, I know. Education is very important, blah, blah, blah..." he quickly said, hoping to cut off her lecture.

Sophie was not amused. "Let's hear what your mother thinks when she sees your grades." She tossed her hair over her shoulder and huffed softly.

"Those aren't even real," Lok said, just a tad desperately. "She won't see them anyway. I got rid of them a long time ago."

"Santiago likes to keep a record. He has a copy of all our assignments and tests. And quizzes," the girl added smugly. It was no secret that while Lok did poorly on his tests - he at least crammed for them the night before - he did...well, extremely poorly on quizzes. Once, when she asked nicely, he admitted to never coming close to passing a single one.

"You'll help me." It was more of a statement than a question but Sophie found herself nodding anyway. "Great. Thanks." He then flashed her a smile so beatific she found herself smiling too. "Let's start Monday, next week."

Sophie laughed.

* * *

LOCATION: VENICE, ITALY: DANTE'S HOUSE

"Hello?" Zhalia tapped the back of her cell phone impatiently. "Hello?" The numbers had seemed strangely familiar so she'd answered the call. Maybe she was being prank-called and the sense of familiarity was just déjà vu because she was missing Dante so much.

God, she was pathetic. They weren't even boyfriend-girlfriend dating - not even officially _friends_! To put it simply, she liked him and he felt the same way. They trusted each other and sometimes had the uncanny ability second-guess each other's thoughts and actions after sharing a quick glance. There was never any 'I like you. Will you be my friend?' or 'Hey. I'm hot; you're hot. Let's be hot together!' between the two of them. Zhalia thought the latter was particularly hilarious, having broken the stupid idiot's nose and _of course_ she'd laughed - well, smirked - hysterically (Could you even smirk hysterically, she wondered briefly and dismissed it just as quickly. If it was possible, she'd done it). Then she'd played wounded and cried tears of laughter, saying the man had attempted rape. Needless to say, that was the last she'd seen of the pervert.

So, yes, Zhalia concluded, back on topic, she was hopelessly clingy and was developing stalkerish tendencies.

And that was how she'd ended up spending the night at Dante's empty house. Zhalia felt her face heat up and pressed her hands to her burning cheeks.

The phone clattered noisily as it hit the floor. Embarrassed at being caught daydreaming - no, apparently the caller had hung up on her.

Zhalia wondered if she was bored enough.

* * *

Zhalia blamed Dante's absence and Sophie and Lok's sheer stupidity and utter boringness for how she'd spent the afternoon flirting at the local police station. To her horror, she'd been there for almost an hour with little to no progress. The idiot behind her was ogling her ass (he didn't seem to realize that the shiny glass windows were reflective), and the one in front of her hadn't met her eyes once. She had to admit, it _was_ strangely flattering... Oh well.

"Simplemind. I think you want to show me something. You know, the room-" Damn, she'd forgotten the official term. "- with all the fancy equipment. Tracking stuff, et cetera." Well, this was embarrassing. They both seemed totally confused as to what she wanted. "Forget it." And just in case her mind babbling had somehow lessened the effect: "Simplemind." She repeated the order and considered knocking them out as an extra safety precaution. In the end, Zhalia opted to tell one of them to erase all the footage from within the last two hours and then knocked them out, pouring a generous amount of alcohol on both their shirts and stuffing a can of beer in the closest one's limp hands.

Then Zhalia made a hasty retreat, face flaming.

* * *

LOCATION: CASTERWILL MANSION

"I. Am. So. _Boreeed_!" Lok wailed, fisting his hair and pulling at it fruitlessly.

Sophie didn't even glance his way. Her face was buried in some fantasy book she'd found a few hours ago.

Lok was tempted to just take it away, but even he knew better. He winced and rubbed his head, remembering the first and last time he had attempted that. Unfortunately for him, Sophie had been reading an ancient volume that time - meaning hardcover, thick, dusty, and smelling funny. His poor head hadn't taken her abuse very well. Sophie had apologized frantically and iced the bump for him, but there wasn't much she could've done for the concussion that resulted. She'd almost set the book on fire but turned around and whacked him instead. They had spent the rest of the day stuffing themselves with popcorn and cuddling on the couch, ignoring the movie that was most likely just on for background noise.

Popcorn. Yum. He rubbed his stomach sheepishly a second before it growled. Huh. So he could kind of predict the future. Maybe he just needed a little more practice.

_Sophie will bring me food_, he chanted mentally, _Sophie will bring me food_. _Sophie will bring me food_. _Sophie will_ -

"Lok, what are you doing?" Sophie had now backed a considerable distance away from him and was now peering at him cautiously.

"Oh. Nothing." His ears burned. He considered asking her. "Are you hungry too?"

"That's it? No. Get it yourself. You're a perfectly capable boy. Go on. Shoo."

Lok gaped at her. "You don't want to bring me food?"

"You mean feed you?" Her nose wrinkled cutely. "Ew."

Ego wounded, Lok trudged to the kitchen, head hanging low.

Sophie turned back to her book.

Lok popped back in a matter of seconds, holding a chocolate-frosted cupcake up in the air. "Hey, Sophie, you know that it's almost Zhalia's birthday?"

"Is it?"

Lok smiled triumphantly; he had _finally_ caught her attention. "Kind of. Exactly a month from tomorrow. She keeps diaries." Lok promptly slapped a hand over his mouth. "Don't tell her I know," he mumbled through his fingers. Zhalia would kill him. Not only that, she would drag out his death as long and as painfully as possible, then find a way to reincarnate him and do it again and again and again... Lok shuddered.

"Oh?" Sophie smiled evilly. "What else did it say?"

"What happens if I tell you?" _Who will you tell? _

"Nothing. I'll just be one really, really, really happy girl." Sophie stressed the word 'girl', smiling innocently.

"Not much." Lok still looked cautious. "It was from a long time ago. I forgot the year, but it was mostly just Zhalia complaining about how Klaus thought a promotion and some money was a good birthday present. I think she was upset because some guy broke her wrist and they didn't have time to heal it and it healed wrong so she had to rebreak and then heal it. I remember 'cause she wrote with her left hand and the letters were huge and formed all wrong. Did you know she writes backwards - mirror backwards - with her left hand? At the end, her handwriting was better but she signed with Tnalio (not backwards)."

"Really? What else did you read?"

Lok shrugged uncomfortably. "It was from a long time ago, like I said. There were other ones but that was the most recent. I think she carries one with her or hides it or something."

"What did you read? Show me." Sophie's smile was alarmingly huge.

"Stuff about being torn between the Organization and the Foundation. Stuff about her feelings." Lok gulped. "About Dante. And stuff."

"Oh. Cool." Sophie tried to keep her voice normal. "Will you show me?"

Lok bolted.

* * *

LOCATION: DANTE'S HOUSE

Zhalia lay on Dante's bed, face buried in his pillow. There was his pillow and there was her pillow. She used to have nightmares and Dante insisted on helping. She hated sleeping pills and was killing herself with caffeine so this was the solution. Hers smelled like her shampoo and his smelled like...well, him. She breathed in deeper. It was wet. God, were those _tears_? She touched her cheek and licked a finger. Salty.

Okay, that decided it for her. She needed a distraction. Her fingers twitched towards her phone yet again but this time she acted on the urge. She called back the mystery caller.

"Hello?"

Zhalia swore her heart stopped beating.

The man on the other line obviously heard her breathing and cleared his throat impatiently. "Ahem. I can hear you breathing, you know."

_Say something_, she urged herself. "Daddy?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own ****Huntik: Secrets & Seekers.**

* * *

LOCATION: VENICE, ITALY, CASTERWILL MANSION

Lok was peering through a keyhole, inwardly sighing with relief.

"Uh oh." He forced down the corners of his mouth. "It looks like she locked it this time. What can we do?"

Sophie didn't look convinced. "It wasn't locked last time?"

"Uh-huh. I guess I just got lucky."

"Oh, really?" An eyebrow went up. "Your name is Lok and you can't even pick a lock."

"Whoops. I guess Mom chose the wrong name."

"Or..." A lightbulb went off; her fingers snapped. "Springer! Invoke him."

Lok paled. "Um."

Sophie placed her hands on her hips, feigning anger. "You're choosing Zhalia over _me_?"

"Nononono, that's not it!" Lok looked panicked. "Sophie, I really like you and-"

Her shoulders were shaking.

"Soph, are you crying?" He tried to hug her, stiffening in surprise when she collapsed on him. "Soph, whatever I said, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry." Lok looked positively distressed.

Sophie began shaking harder.

"Ooh, do you like kittens? I'll buy you a kitty. Hey, you can name it 'Lok' after me, your favoritest person in the whole universe!"

Sophie snorted.

Lok paused. Maybe she was really a cat person and she was just so overjoyed she busted out laughing. He carefully pried away her hands from her face. A rock the size of a meteor sank to the bottom of his stomach and settled there, poking into his insides uncomfortably.

"You were laughing at me...this entire time?" Lok stuttered, giving her a wounded look.

Sophie batted her eyelashes and flung her arms around his neck. "You want to buy me a kitty? Aww, Lok, I'm flattered."

He calmly removed her body from his and backed up a few steps, tackling her. Screaming a war cry, he chased her into the nearest room, which happened to be the kitchen.

There were frosted cupcakes on the table.

Sophie used his momentary distraction to pin him to the refrigerator.

Lok flinched.

The strawberry blonde laughed breathlessly, sucking in air so she could properly gloat her victory.

Lok took the opportunity to dart under her legs and escape to the table, grabbing a cupcake in each hand and fleeing, all the while bellowing: "Intermission! Intermission!"

Sophie shook her head, leaning against the fridge, out of breath. Then she waited a couple of minutes, moving to stand guard at the cupcakes. She saw a tuft of his blond hair and carefully chose the one with the most frosting, licking it off slowly, tantalizingly. She moaned, closing her eyes with exaggerated relish. She peeked and saw him staring at her cupcake hungrily. She moved it to the right, then to the left to check of she had his full attention. Yup, his eyes followed. Then she promptly shoved it in her mouth and tried to swallow without choking. She succeeded, though her face was a little red when she was finished.

Sophie began to reach for another; Lok yelled: "I surrender, I surrender! The victory is yours, O Great Queen!" He dipped his head in a mock-bow and fluidly stole the cupcake from her hand.

* * *

Zhalia walked into a scene that could only be described as chaotic. The living room was a mess of frosting, sugar, flour, eggs, and other mysterious substances; and from what she could see of it, the kitchen was just as bad, if not worse. Sophie was straddling Lok and cramming cupcake after cupcake onto his face (she was missing his mouth entirely - and was that _frosting_ in his _ear_?)

Zhalia cringed, touching her own ear gingerly.

Her brother -

_No, no, she didn't have a brother. Nuh-uh_ -

used to give her -

_Zhalia Moon never had a brother. Nope_ -

those what-were-they-called -

"_Wet willies, Zhaal. My name is William. It was destined to happen," said he, smiling too smugly for a little ten-year-old. Oh, and he was short too. Maybe two inches taller than her six-year-old self. _

_"Nobody even calls you William, Liam! Not even Mom!" she shrieked, lunging at him, teeth bared. _

_"Grandma does. And she calls you -"_

_She gasped, mouth forming a perfect 'O'. "Don't you dare, William Christopher Moon! I will end you. I swear, I will kill -"_

_"Zee Zee. Darling, wittle, ickle, cutesy Zee Zee, honey bear. Aww, what a pwecious -" Liam screamed, rubbing his arm angrily. _

_"Ha! Hahahahaha!" Zhalia crowed triumphantly, sticking out her tongue. Then she ran like the world was ending. "Hey, Grandma, I think I want that bath now! I mean, like, right _now_! Grandma, where are you?"_

_Liam cackled, rubbing his hands together evilly. _

_"Grandma!" Zhalia only had enough time to breathe while her brother tackled her, screeching out a war cry. _

Zhalia fisted her hands and watched the trembling gradually come to a still.

_No. __William Christopher Moon never existed. He had died to her a long, long, long time ago. _

Well, fuck. She hadn't thought about her nonexistent brother in fourteen years. With him, her father was dredging up all these other unpleasant memories. She took in a deep breath and focused on the present, namely two teenagers who were most certainly _not _acting their age.

"What are you two doing?" Zhalia tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice, but by Sophie's indignant glare, she knew she failed. So, condescension then. "Whatever." She rolled her eyes, a natural, easy, practiced action. See? She wasn't entirely pathetic. "I just stopped by to pick up some of my stuff. Dante knows the details, ask him to explain." Not exactly. She'd left him a short note, maybe three sentences. Or less. She couldn't remember. "I'll be back in a week, anyway."

She walked into 'her' room. It was just another guest room with some of her clothes and belongings stashed inside. People knew they weren't allowed in and they - Wait a second, were those crumbs? Chocolate cupcake crumbs, to be specific? She critically thought back to Lok and Sophie's disheveled appearances and the state of the house in general. Chocolate. Cupcakes. Baking stuff. World War III. It didn't take a genius to guess what happened. Luckily for Zhalia, she was a genius too.

She checked the time. 7:26. Damn. No time to properly chew them out. It'd be 9:26 there and she wasn't up for night stalking. Night-vision goggles were _expensive_, and it wasn't like Dante to go for second best, so _of course _he bought the latest models with all those neat gadgets and gizmos. Which meant they were off-limits and with Lok and Sophie around, that meant they were hidden and locked up. Thoughtspectre would be too exhausting for that long of a distance and a plane ride would be about four hours - but that would be for Moscow and that'd still be out of her price range. She'd given herself a week, which was more than enough time to satisfy a whim of hers. She could easily cross it off her list...but he _was _her father, after all. Though that hardly meant anything. She hadn't taken into consideration she didn't have a clue about where he was and that she was guessing Russia because that was where Klaus was from and he claimed he saw her many times before he adopted her when she still had a family.

He told her that her mother died and her father fell apart. He and her father used to work together or maybe against each other, but they were frequently in contact with one another. Klaus said something about liking her aunt _romantically _(ew) and that he was friendly with everyone (yeah right). Then the story got really weird and hard to follow and she was only six, for heavens' sake, so she didn't quite follow and Klaus wasn't too fond of questions anyway. So apparently her mother got sick and died, her father attempted suicide and failed, and Klaus was there to help him deal, and then somebody divorced and there was a huge fight and everyone was angry and her dad ran away and abandoned her in Italy because he was on the run and took a quick detour for her. So she was on her own for a few months, was bullied the whole time, and miraculously, Klaus was there to make it all better.

Yeah. Zhalia still didn't get it. She was going on a wild goose chase based on a hunch just to satisfy her curiosity. She opened the suitcase she'd been staring through as she was thinking and tossed in some toiletries and clothes. Zhalia wondered how much money she'd need. All her important stuff were at Dante's and she had very limited time. She stuffed a wad of hundreds in her purse and a few other random bills.

Whatever. She'd improvise.


End file.
